October 27, 2022

Cole walks into the city while holding Lock’s soul. He reaches a hand into the soul pulling out a strand of memories as a feeling of good luck grows. He keeps pulling, going further into the memories, past when Lock was born. The memories become distorted, constantly changing, and incomprehensible. Just looking at it causes confusion and a headache. The street lights flicker. Eventually the memories tug on the soul as if caught on something. In the dark around Cole green, blue, and red lights turn on like eyes as they watch. Slowly they move closer him.

"Wait, wait, wait" Cole stops as he looks around at the lights "just stop for one second and let me explain why I'm doing this"

Suddenly the lights stop in place.

"Lock is the only part of the old non-feral world that's still the same" Cole sniffles "and I just want her to remember me so I can say I’m sorry for killing her" Cole starts to tear up slightly "just let me have this...please?"

Cole feels a slight breeze from behind as he looks over his shoulder "please...I don't want to fight"

In an alley Cole can faintly see the white face with white lights lined up like the sun rays around it. It's standing still with the one pupil watching him.

"I just want my daughter back......please....she's all I have left that's still original" Cole pleads with the white face.

It doesn't blink as it watches. It's hard to tell what it's thinking.

"...Please?"

It watches for an uncomfortable amount of time before slowly drifting back out of sight into the dark. All of the light faces slowly move back out of sight.

"Thank you" Cole smiles slightly as she tries to pull the rest of the memories free. It releases as strands of memories start spilling out of the soul.

"...Wait...How much is there?!" Cole slightly panics as he tries to keep the film from touching the floor. It keeps spilling out more and becoming too much to carry. Metal strips rip out her jacket and start carrying it all.

"I'm fucking stupid this another reels worth" The metal strips expand as more film comes out. Eventually all of the memories start to change. As it's exposed to the street light it all becomes regular unchanging memories. It stops spilling out. The last few panels at the very beginning of all the memories are blacked out. Cole groans and snaps. A big film reel appears in his hands and he starts transferring the memories to the bigger reel. "this is gonna take a minute"

As he starts to fix the film, the soul glows as it absorbs all of the memories.

"...oh" Cole blinks a couple times as the metal strips retract to his jacket and the rips heal "well then that was easy" Cole walks back to the house with the soul.

Later Lock is sitting on the floor by a wall in the living room. Lock’s eye twitches as she watches the floor.

Cole looks over at lock "Did you sleep at all?"

"Heh? What?" She blinks some and looks over.

"Did you sleep?" Cole looks concerned.

"Uhhmmm I know what sleep is"

"...did you get any?"

"...sure"

Lock goes to stand up but falls over as she just lets her legs go limp. She gets back up again and brushes herself off.

"I'm starting to think that you didn't"

"No I did, I did ...just not last night"

"Then when did you sleep?" Cole takes 2 of her pills as soon as she's done speaking.

"Three nights ago?"

"I don't think that's....good at all, and I know i'm one to speak about not sleeping for several days but shush"

Luna comments "Wasn't gonna say anything. Some people just struggle to sleep. It sucks."

"Depends, most of the time I prefer not sleeping" Spider shrugs.

"I couldn't imagine going more than a day without sleep. I technically did that this past weekend though. Turns out a hard stone floor isn't exactly the most comfy sleeping location." Luna continues.

Cole looks like she has something to say but stops herself and looks at the floor. Isaac nudges Cole in the side.

Cole sighs and looks at lock "do...do you remember when I sent you back to the non-feral world because you forgot to get something and then the timeline was...erased?"

Lock looks down for a moment "...uh...yeah."

Cole's eyes fill with tears as she tilts her head up to keep them from running as she barely manages a "I'm so fucking sorry I did that to you, that moment has been forever engrained into my mind....I still beat myself up over it and I just wanted to say that I'm sorry"

Cole sounds like she's seconds away from crying.

Lock stares as the gears seem to be turning her head. She recalls deciding to stay in this house before. Everyone called it Harmonia’s house.

"I didn't....I didn't do it on purpose....i never would have sent you back if I had known that was gonna happen" Cole sniffles, trying so hard to not cry

"Right...uhh thanks?" Lock seems a bit confused by coles reaction.

Cole wipes the tears from her eyes and sniffles as she looks back at Lock "uhm w-why are you confused?"

"I mean, I've died alot, not like its ganna do anything"

"but....I...I caused that one, y-you aren't mad?" Cole looks confused

"You didn't cause that one though,” Luna corrects "You were innocent."

“But if I didn't send Lock back she wouldn't have died" Cole looks over at luna

"You're right, but at the same time, you're blaming yourself over hindsight. There is no way we could have predicted the entire timeline being erased on a whim." Luna looks back at Cole.

"No I'm not mad but that doesnt mean Im happy either" Lock adds.

Cole looks over at Lock "what do you mean?"

"It happens," Lock shrugs.

"....you've died before this...haven't you?"

"More than I can count" Lock sighs.

"...Oh..." Cole feels very stupid. Isaac chuckles some.

Luna sighs. "I cannot imagine dying so many times. Twice is more than enough for me..."

"...I stopped counting last night around 487" Lock mumbles.

"...holy shit Lock." Luna gasps then looks down to the floor.

"Interesting" Cole is not phased at all

"Over half of them I'm not even sure what happened. Like...what happened to all the other risen I knew? They didn't restart like me or the others"

"All of the other risen? I mean the crew from last timeline are still around." Luna says as she tilts her head.

Lock shakes her head "There were so many others before you guys. All trying to help only for everything to restart in the blink of the eye...after they went missing for awhile"

Luna blinks a bunch trying to comprehend, "Like it doesn't shock me that there are other risen before our crew, but then it sounds like Datrrs just stopped."

"They went missing one by one"

"And that's even weirder what the hell? They just went missing? Like poof?"

Lock nods.

Luna takes a deep breath, "Did you ever hear from them again? Cuz going off of your description, it sounds like they're still gone."

"Never did"

"I wonder where they went? Like risen are able to help from long distance using Datrrs. They shouldn't have gone missing, unless they were taken."

Lock just falls over on the floor and grumbles.

"My brain hurts" Cole mumbles

"You're telling me. another risen crew doesn't shock me at all, but they went poof? That's news."

Cole leans on Isaac and looks at him with a ‘please help me’ face. Lock goes to get up and take a step as she falls over again.

Oleander walks in and looks to Lock. "Are you okay?"

"Um, are you two okay?" Luna asks with concern.

Cole stops leaning on isaac and stares at luna

"No! you get to talk about all this shit about the risen and I never get to talk about the USS Wyoming because it's and I quote too much information!"

"I never said it was too much information?"

Lock just puts her face on the ground "I hate gravity"

"Good" Cole takes a deep breath "the USS Wyoming BB-32 was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships and was the third ship of the United States Navy named Wyoming, although she was only the second named in honor of the 44th state. Wyoming was laid down at the William Cramp & Sons in Philadelphia in February 1910, was launched in May 1911, and was completed in September 1912. She was armed with a main battery of twelve 12-inch 305 mm guns and capable of a top speed of 20.5 kn 38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph. During the First World War, she was part of the Battleship Division Nine, which was attached to the British Grand Fleet as the 6th Battle Squadron. During the war, she was primarily tasked with patrolling in the North Sea and escorting convoys to Norway. She served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets throughout the 1920s, and in 1931–1932, she was converted into a training ship according to the terms of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Wyoming served as a training ship throughout the 1930s, and in November 1941, she became a gunnery ship. She operated primarily in the Chesapeake Bay area, which earned her the nickname "Chesapeake Raider". In this capacity, she trained some 35,000 gunners for the hugely expanded US Navy during World War II. She continued in this duty until 1947, when she was decommissioned on 1 August and subsequently sold for scrap; she was broken up in New York starting in December 1947"

Luna stares ahead as she listens to it. "Damn dude. Did you quote the Wikipedia article?"

Oleander stands there like a deer in headlights as Cole info dumps. Lock has temporarily broken from the info and the questioning.

"i'm not finished" Cole takes another deep breath "Following the United States' entrance into World War II, Wyoming performed her normal duties as a gunnery training ship with the Operational Training Command, United States Atlantic Fleet starting in February 1942. She operated primarily in the Chesapeake Bay area, and frequent sightings of the ship steaming around the bay earned her the nickname "Chesapeake Raider". Wyoming was very busy, training thousands of anti-aircraft gunners on weapons ranging from light .50 caliber 12.7 mm guns to medium-caliber 5-inch guns for the rapidly expanding American fleet. Early in the war, the Navy briefly considered converting Wyoming back to her battleship configuration, but decided against the plan. These duties continued throughout the rest of the war. Wyoming was modernized at Norfolk Navy Yard from 12 January to 3 April 1944; the reconstruction removed the last of her three 12-inch gun turrets, and replaced them with four twin and two single enclosed mounts for 5-inch/38 caliber guns. New fire control radars were also installed; these modifications allowed Wyoming to train anti-aircraft gunners with the most modern equipment they would use while in combat with the fleet. She was back in service in the Chesapeake Bay by 10 April. Over the course of the war, Wyoming trained an estimated 35,000 gunners on seven different types of guns: 5-inch, 3-inch, 1.1-inch, 40-millimeter, 20-millimeter, .50 caliber, and .30 caliber 7.62 mm weapons. Due to her extensive use as a gunnery training ship, she claimed the distinction of firing more ammunition than any other ship in the fleet during the war-"

Cole takes another deep breath. "Wyoming finished her gunnery training duties in the Chesapeake area on 30 June 1945, when she left Norfolk for the New York Navy Yard, for further modifications. Work was completed by 13 July, after which she left for Casco Bay. There, she joined Composite Task Force 69 (CTF 69), under command of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee. Wyoming was tasked with developing tactics to more effectively engage the Japanese kamikaze suicide aircraft. The gunners conducted experimental gunnery drills with towed sleeves, drone aircraft, and radio-controlled targets. On 31 August, CTF 69 was renamed Operational Development Force, United States Fleet."

"I fuckin hate it here." Luna ignores Cole. "And I'm the problem here. At least I don't fucking infodump about WW1 warships."

"it's a ww1 and ww2 warship" Cole corrects.

"oh ok"

"and there's multiple classes of the uss wyoming, that was just about the dreadnaught"

Lock mumbles partly muffled by the floor "I relive the same sorry bleep life hundreds of times. Watch all of my loved ones die in mostly the same ways in an eternal loop of suffering. Even the different groups of risen that try to help are whisked away in the winds of death and yet I'm stuck here listening to this." 

Cole comments "I could infodump more lock, my jaw never tires just like the USS wyoming."

"...I'm just gonna pretend like I remembered nothin. Repressin memories seems to work really well" 

"oh it does..." Cole is debating info dumping again

Luna grumbles "Please don't. There's more than just you in this room."

Lock blinks some as she stands with no issues this time "Works better when you can just tuck memories away in a file too! Anyway I'm hungry" Lock walks off to the kitchen.

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